"Measure 20 times; drill once!"

It may not surprise you to learn that interior decorating is not exactly my jam. My mother is super good at it, but I inherited none of her talent. I am an auditory learner and as non-visual as anyone I know; I couldn't tell you what looks good in a house to save my life. All this makes moving into a new home challenging. Suddenly, I have so many empty rooms and blank walls. We moved nearly six months ago, and it's taken me about that long to get the living and dining rooms furnished, and I'm still not quite done, but close. A few months ago, my uber-talented sister-in-law, Monica, sent me two lovely pieces of art that she created, and until this past week, they were literally the only things hanging on my walls. Look how beautiful:

I'm definitely a minimalist when it comes to home decor; for me, less is definitely more. But I still needed something! Back when we packed up and moved from Angel house, Amanda made me promise not to allow anyone but her to hang things in the new house. I've mentioned before that she has a remarkable skillset, and one item in that set is her eye for design, combined with her precise attention to detail. Her mantra: "Measure 20 times; drill once!" And it works too!

Shulamith is, shall we say, less prone to exact precision and far less likely to measure 20 times. Or even once. In the middle of "Project Make Terrianne's Living Room Wall Look Good," I believe I heard Shulamith say something like, "Think twice, measure once, drill five times." Haha! Still, let's give credit where credit is due. While Amanda arranged this wall grouping, Shulamith was the one who talked me into buying the mirror, and she is also the one who found the cute "E and "W" tiles. Eli thought it was "dope" that we were decorating our living room with his initials, so I made sure to get an ampersand sign to separate the two letters, which (sorry, Eli) represent the two last names in our family.

This project took two evenings, and both were pretty wild rides. I busied myself cleaning and tried to stay clear of the whole measuring and drilling thing. I am positively useless to help, and I just get stressed. The first night, the goal was to hang the three major pieces in the wall grouping Amanda had created. 

The second night, the goal was completing the wall with the final two smaller pieces: a plant and the initial tiles. I'm not sure which night was hardest; they were both difficult. "Measure 20 times; drill once" is only the first step. There is also this thing called a "level," which Amanda uses to make sure things are straight. So her mantra, more accurately, should be "Measure 20 times; check level; measure again; check level again; measure once more; get Eli to hold everything up; step back to see how it looks from far away; measure again; check level again; and (finally) drill once."

I will never be an interior designer. That sounds like the job from hell, right up there with telemarketer or door-to-door salesperson. This stuff is so hard for me, and I don't enjoy any part of the process. I am so grateful for others who are willing to share their talents. Thank you, Amanda, for your creativity and for your eagerness to always volunteer to help with so many projects in so many ways. Thank you, Eli, for (1) marrying Amanda and (2) always helping out with any project at any time, even when you're crazy busy finishing up one job and training for another. Thank you, Shulamith, for running around with me, here and there and everywhere, to look for all things "house," and for always being by my side with unequivocal support and encouragement and for being my very best friend. Though they weren't part of this (or any) home decorating project, thank you Isaiah and Seth for your constant friendship, for making me laugh every day, and for just being the coolest! And thank you, Luke, for making me a mom.

Happy Mother's Day to all. I am, indeed, a lucky mommy!

Oh...and here's the final product!